Northern hemisphere June 2010

[KentGardener]

I love the flower buds on those kalmia laurels.   

[Gerdk]

Thank you, Maggi and David!

By your lovely photos, Gerd, it seems that you have dry weather in your part of Germany at least.
The Digitalis obscura is charming... I love the colour.

Maggi, After experienced the socalled 'Schafskälte'  (cold period named after sheeps) fortunately we have a sunny and dry spell - enjoying it!

Gerd

[Lesley Cox]

Spring Squills..........................wow

Are these Scilla verna? I have some plants, maybe 30 from seed collected in the Orneys by JH and through seedlist. The first flowers were this last spring. Maybe in 100 years, if I spread them around a bit.....

[Maggi Young]

Spring Squills..........................wow

Are these Scilla verna? I have some plants, maybe 30 from seed collected in the Orkneys by JH and through seedlist. The first flowers were this last spring. Maybe in 100 years, if I spread them around a bit.....

Yes, they are Scilla verna.....  how pretty they are en masse - an eye opener for anyone who thinks the Northern Isles of the UK are barren !

[JPB]

Aquilegia chaplinei, from wild collected seed (sic?) Eddy County, New Mexico
Dianthus charidemi, a Gabo de Gata (Almerķa, SE-Spain) endemic
Cistus crispus, From seed collected at Punta Carnero, Tarifa area (SW-Spain). Creeping habit (!) and growing close to the sea.
Thymus longiflorus, Andalucian endemic from Fernan Peres, Almerķa, SE-Spain

[David Nicholson]

Lovely selection Hans.

[Lesley Cox]

Your Abies is certianly a smashing plant John. How tall will it grow? and I'm a bit surprised to see the Cyrtanthus flowering brilliantly. I'd thought your climate would maybe not be warm enough.

It may be noticed that I have put a signature under my avatar pic. This is because I have bought a new vacuum cleaner and feel obliged to use it. The old one I managed quite successfully to ignore. But I don't want to get over enthusiastic about it, hence the signature. It was told to me by the gardening friend of one of my market vendors, who is herself built along similar lines to Maggi and me, and who, with her husband, raises free range pigs. I had told Linda Maggi's "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder....." line and where it came from. I always think (only privately) of Linda as Miss Piggy. She and I have on rare occasions come close to exchanging black eyes, but overall, we're on excellent terms.

[Gail]

It may be noticed that I have put a signature under my avatar pic. This is because I have bought a new vacuum cleaner and feel obliged to use it. The old one I managed quite successfully to ignore. BUt I don't want to get over enthusiastic about it, hence the signature.

What you need Lesley is a ride-on vacuum cleaner - then your husband would fight you to use it!

[Lesley Cox]

I'd love to think so Gail, but he'd probably try it out on the grass! He has never yet been known to take an interest in any work indoors.

[Zdenek]

Zdenek, I'm very pleased to see your plant of Saponaria pulvinaris as it was lumped together on the SRGC and AGS seed lists this year with pumilio, as if they were the same thing, and I knew they were not. I wanted to apply for pulvinaris which I used to have in a trough, but didn't, in case I got pumilio, which I had donated. Really nice to see the real thing.

Lesley, I reply to your notice too late, I am aware. Our country cottage and garden is about 50 km far from our flat and computer. I however live with my wife mostly at the cottage and hence my delay.
I understand the problem. The European Saponaria pumila is often mistakenly called S. pumilio. It is an error of us, growers. Saponaria pumilio however exists - it is an older name for Turkish S. pulvinaris. So that no wonder that there are some mistakes from such a mess.

[Kristl Walek]

The eastern USA Zenobia pulverulenta is having a great season here; as is Stewartia and the various Cornus kousas.

Magnolia tripetala is nearly at the end; but a few stray flowers remain.

M. virginiana of course blooms on and off the entire season; seed pods already in evidence as well as more flowers in near bud to come along later.

[TheOnionMan]

The eastern USA Zenobia pulverulenta is having a great season here; as is Stewartia and the various Cornus kousas.

Magnolia tripetala is nearly at the end; but a few stray flowers remain.

M. virginiana of course blooms on and off the entire season; seed pods already in evidence as well as more flowers in near bud to come along later.

Kristl, is your Magnolia virginiana heavenly scented?  I visited the garden of George Newman in Bedford, New Hampshire, USA two weeks ago, and his M. virginiana tree had an intoxicating fragrance.  George's specialty is native North American plants, particularly woodlanders, and has botanized extensively in northern Maine, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Gaspe, and NewFoundland.  Back to a southern USA native, he had nice bushes of Zenovia pulverulenta in good glaucous-leaf forms.  I had a seed grown plant, which unfortunately was green leaved and lacked any of the beautiful glaucousness; it finally expired this winter; not sad to see it go, a good excuse to get a better glaucous-leaf form... the flowers are exquisite.

My Stewartia pseudocamellia flowered heavily a full 3 weeks earlier than normal... still some flowers left and opening daily.

[Kristl Walek]

Kristl, is your Magnolia virginiana heavenly scented?  I visited the garden of George Newman in Bedford, New Hampshire, USA two weeks ago, and his M. virginiana tree had an intoxicating fragrance....

Back to a southern USA native, he had nice bushes of Zenovia pulverulenta in good glaucous-leaf forms.  I had a seed grown plant, which unfortunately was green leaved and lacked any of the beautiful glaucousness; it finally expired this winter; not sad to see it go, a good excuse to get a better glaucous-leaf form... the flowers are exquisite.

Yes....almost too heavenly scented. I am beginning to have difficulties with floral fragrances for some odd reason. The Zenobia fragrance doesn't affect me as much---my plant is quite gray, even in the light shade where it is growing. Hoping the good bloom will translate into plenty of good seed.

[Lesley Cox]

Thank you Zdenek for your notes. Perhaps you could confirm for me then, that I should be calling the plant below, Saponaria pumila? I had thought that pumila was used by people who didn't realize that the correct name was pumilio! Seems I was quite wrong about this.



This means that what I have distributed as S. pumilio was actually S. pumila and those expecting to get pulvinaris, will have received pumila instead. Oh dear.

[TheOnionMan]

Photographed this at a friend's garden, Forsythia viridissima var. koreana 'Kumson'. The new growth is strikingly variegated with yellow veining.  She originally bought the plant simply as F. koreana, but it seems to be identical to the popular named variety. After several years, suddenly the plant is starting to act like a Forsythia with lots of new shoots 5-6' long (2 meters).  But even as remarkable as the variegation is, step back a few yards from the shrub, and it is hard to tell that it is a variegated shrub, this one is for close-up viewing.

Photos on the web, and some nursery descriptions, sometimes highlight the white or silver veining, yet clearly in the plant I photographed the veining is yellow.  Are there more than one cultivar at play here?  Is there a yellow variegated one, AND a white variegated form?